GPU Performance

Contrary to popular opinion prior to its launch, the Clover Trail platform and Cloverview SoC feature a PowerVR SGX 545 GPU. The rumored PowerVR SGX 544MP2 won’t show up until Clover Trail+ next year. The SGX 545 is clocked at a fairly aggressive 533MHz.

Architecturally the 545 is very similar to the PowerVR SGX 540 used in Intel’s Medfield smartphone platform, with a handful of additions. The shader array remains unchanged at four USSE pipes. The 545 adds four more 10-bit integer pipes, doubles the triangle setup rate and doubles the number of depth test units as well. DirectX 10 class texture hardware is also a part of the mix, as well as everything else needed to officially support DirectX 10 (D3D feature level 9_3).

Compared to what’s shipping in the latest iPads however, Clover Trail is horribly under-specced. We don’t have good cross-platform (Windows RT/8) GPU tests yet, but based on what I’ve seen thus far it looks like the GPU here is a bit slower than what you get in a Tegra 3.

Mobile SoC GPU Comparison

PowerVR SGX 545

NVIDIA Tegra 3

PowerVR SGX 543MP2

PowerVR SGX 543MP4

PowerVR SGX 554MP4

Used In

Clover Trail

Tegra 3

iPad 2/mini

iPad 3

iPad 4

SIMD Name

USSE

"core"

USSE2

USSE2

USSE2

# of SIMDs

4

12

8

16

32

MADs per SIMD

2

1

4

4

4

Total MADs

8

12

32

64

128

GFLOPS @ 300MHz

4.8 GFLOPS

7.2 GFLOPS

19.2 GFLOPS

38.4 GFLOPS

76.8 GFLOPS

Looking at raw FP performance tells us a lot of the story. The 545’s high clock helps it punch above its weight, but it's still significantly less powerful than the 543MP2 used in the iPad 2/mini (and it’s nothing compared to what’s in the iPad 3/4).

Tegra 3-class GPU performance may have been acceptable a year ago running Android, but it’s just too little too late today. Since Clover Trail has full backwards compatibility with older Windows applications, I can put its GPU performance in perspective. Turning to 3DMark03 and 06, we can get a good idea of the class of performance we’re looking at. For complete (and consistent) comparison points, I've tossed the W510's results into Bench so you can compare to any notebook/mobile GPU you want to there.

Compared to the old Atom platform with Intel’s GMA 3150, the PowerVR SGX 545 based GMA is around 3x faster. Even Intel's old mobile G45 graphics are actually slightly slower. Performance is still far behind everything else modern though. The GPU is more than adequate for Modern UI acceleration, but if you have secret hopes of being able to run some of your older games on Clover Trail you’ll want to stash those dreams away.

None of this is really Imagination’s fault - Intel remains generations behind in implementing competitive GPUs in its ultra mobile SoCs. Even the jump to PowerVR SGX 544MP2 next year will happen just as Apple likely moves to Img’s Series 6 (Rogue) architecture. It’s definitely a problem if you’re a silicon company that delivers slower silicon than what your customers can put together.

102 Comments

Also, the reported SunSpider time on the Nexus 10 is only for Chrome. If you were to try any other common browser, like Dolphin, you'd see a SunSpider range in the ~800ms range. Chrome is just poorly optimized for JavaScript for whatever reason.Reply

"Optimizing around 16:9 delivers a much better video viewing and multitasking experience, at the expense of pretty much ruining portrait mode aspirations and making for a slightly awkward in-hand feel."

I'd also like to point out that this is an opinion and not a fact. I, for one, really enjoy using widescreen devices in portrait mode. Do you know just how much of a website is visible that way? A huge amount. It takes a little getting used to, but it is not by any means awkward.Reply

Battery life, performance, price. Pick any two. It's pretty clear that despite the best efforts of Microsoft and Intel that this narrative hasn't changed in the slightest. At $499 this is more expensive than other entry level tablets, the battery life is inferior, and the relative performance is crap.

This device cannot replace my notebook and for a toy device (iPad, Nexus, Tab) I would rather stick with my iPad. I look at this tablet and see the worst of both worlds. Performance is too low to replace my notebook and app selection and battery life are too low to replace my existing tablet. No man's land. What use case would I have to find myself in where this tablet was the solution? I can think of a few fields (medical, dental, outside sales, construction, etc) but most of these are small trades. I see no mass market appeal in this device.Reply